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Saman Javed (20-34019)

English 515 (South Asian Literary Genres)

Instructor: Dr. Aamir Aziz

Date of Submission: 25-01-2018

Love, Reification and Capitalism in Chetan Bhagat’s Revoulution 2020: Love Corruption

Ambition

Abstract

This research study is about the profound meaning of reification and its relevance in the

text of the novel Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat. Reification is a general perception and a

specific ideology of people living in a capitalist society. It hides some facts and spreads some

fraudulent ideas in society. The study of reification reveals the essence of social reality. It shows

how different aspects of capitalism seem natural and general to man. It is a methodical strategy

to understand people's thinking and actions. Together, with the further analytical investigation of

reification, this study examines the thoughts, feelings, and actions of people in the novel. The

interactions of the characters are examined with reference to reification. The paper explores in

depth nature of the prevailing assumptions and their relationship to human interaction as well as

the illusory elements of capitalist society presented in the novel. Text analysis is the appropriate

research method for this study and is analyzed through the theoretical framework derived from

Lukacs theory of reification.

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Introduction

Chetan Bhagat, a rising star of contemporary South-Asian literature, is a versatile

personality. Bhagat born in Delhi, India on April 22, 1974 can be referred as a novelist,

screenplay writer, columnist, and a public speaker. He belonged to a traditional social middle

class family from Punjab. His father served as a lieutenant colonel in the Indian army, while his

mother worked in the government’s agriculture department. Most of his education was in his

hometown. He was enrolled at the Army Public School in 1978 and later went on to specialize in

engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. He then studied at the Indian Institute

of Management in Ahmedabad and married a fellow student in 1998. Upon graduation, he

moved with his family to Hong Kong, where he spent 11 years as an investment banker with

Goldman Sachs. After returning to India, he moved from Delhi to Mumbai, with this shift he also

changed his career choice and began his passion for writing.

Bhagat is the author of many prizewinning novels. His first novel “Five Point Someone”

(2004) revolves around Ryan Oberoi, a highly intelligent but permissive student. He believes that

true education results from critical thinking and fun, not from memorizing formulas and

textbooks. The second novel “One Night @ the Call Center” (2005) is about six call centers

employees who receive a call from GOD one night. “The 3 Mistakes Of My Life” (2008) counts

the story of three youngsters who are trying to make a life while staying in their home town. “2

States” (2009) involves two individuals coming from different cultural backgrounds decides that

they would not get married until they convince their parents. “Revolution 2020: Love Corruption

Ambition” (2011) is based on the rampant corruption present in the educational system of

different countries particularly India. “Half Girlfriend” (2014) is about the love story of two

college fellows in which the girl half heartedly accepts the guy’s proposal to be his girl friend.
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“The One Indian Girl” (2016) is a story about a young investment banker Radhika who has

finally accepted to an arranged marriage after being heartbroken for two times. Bhagat’s novels

have sold more than seven million copies and have remained best sellers. In 2008, the New York

Times quoted Bhagat as “one of the best-selling English writer in the history of India”. Bhagat

also writes for columns on youth, career development and current affairs for The Times of India

(in English) and Dainik Bhaskar (in Hindi).

Chetan Bhagat today has a very important place in the hearts of youth. He is an active

and vigilant writer who keeps pace with the very small things in the area. His novels are full of

fictitious stories, followed by some relevant and burning themes of our society. He has done his

utmost to raise many questions in his writings so that readers can be made aware that they are

living with these problems.

Reification is the ideological question of capitalist society. Marx and Lukacs point out

that there is reification in capitalism (Lukacs, 1971). It is a representation of social consciousness

that identifies human relationships with things like properties. Almost all aspects of society are

affected by commodity exchange. The ideas prevailing in society are formed by the commodity

form. Accordingly, the social structure of capitalist society includes reification. Human

relationships are a restored relationship. Lukacs visualizes that "natural laws" of capitalism

indoctrinate human consciousness (1971). As a result, the atomization of individuals takes place

in society and almost every human being is a separate entity. Under the influence of co-

modification, the objectification of social relations is the dominant phenomenon in capitalist

society. This paper analyses Chetan Bhagat’s novel Revolution 2020 with reference to

reification. The novel presents a story about corruption and love in a capitalist Indian society.

Reification is very likely in capitalism. It is a social theme of modern capitalist society. A

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novel, as a genre of literature, reflects people in a particular society and gives an impression of

reality. Therefore, the main problem of this study is the need to explore reification as a social

phenomenon in the novel. The focus is on the interaction of the characters and they behave like

real people. For this reason, the characters in the novel and their relationships with each other are

probed to understand the reification. They act according to the principles of capitalism.

Research Methodology

This paper uses textual analysis as a research method. The text of the novel Revolution

2020 is been carefully analyzed on the basis of the theoretical framework derived from Lukacs

theory of reification. It has created the conceptual foundations of analysis, interpretation and

explanation. It contains the main features of the reification. The interaction of the characters in

the novel is been studied in terms of the reversal of values, false consciousness, dehumanization,

depersonalization, evocation, devaluation, and objectification of humans in the capitalist society.

These are different aspects of the reification and how they overlap. The causes and consequences

of these aspects are also analyzed. Likewise, the altruistic and individualistic elements have been

reviewed with reference to reification.

Literature Review

A person under the persona of reification demonstrates instrumental interaction with

others and views their own opportunities from a profitability perspective. In this context, Lukacs

assumes that in capitalist society almost every individual has the habit of seeing himself and the

world as pure things or objects. Therefore, reification is a perceptual category in which the

natural environment, social environment and personal qualities of an individual are understood

or presented in a simple and emotionless way. This is the thing-like attitude towards oneself and
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the world. While referring to the inner spirit of reification, Honneth in an article Reification: A

Recognition-Theoretical View, points out the interaction between the characters as described in

some recent novels resembles human behaviors with material things. They have no sentimental

rapport with each other. In his view, reification is “a modified form of human behaviour” (93).

There is hardly a difference between human interaction and a person’s handling of

inanimate objects. It suggests that people do not receive their deserved status. On the contrary,

things are considered more valuable than humans. People are resources to achieve a range of

materialistic benefits. This idea is expressed by Nussbaum in his book Sex and Social Justice by

the term “objectification”. He believes that reification is unethical because it sees man as a

commodity and inanimate things. They are treated as meaningless robots without human

feelings.

Val Burris (1988) interprets that Marx’s idea about reification is concerned with social

consciousness. Under the sway of capitalism, human beings develop a collective consciousness

in which human relations are given the characteristics of things. For Marx and Lukacs both, the

social consciousness is an unavoidable phenomenon and seems natural with human beings. The

theory of reification diagnoses the reciprocal connection between the social structure and social

consciousness. The social consciousness is often a victim of illusion because the people usually

cannot see beyond the seeming reality.

Val Burris in his article Reification: Marxist perspective, interprets that Marx's idea of

reification deals with social consciousness. Under the rule of capitalism, people develop a

collective consciousness in which human relationships are given the properties of things. For

both Marx and Lukacs, social consciousness is an inevitable phenomenon and appears natural to
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man. The theory of reification makes the reciprocal connection between social structure and

social consciousness. Social awareness is often a victim of illusions because people usually

cannot see beyond apparent reality. Referring to this Marx states in his article Capital: A critique

of political economy, “All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the

essence of things directly coincided” (Burris).

The statement indicates that there is a clear distinction between appearance and reality.

Social awareness is generally a false consciousness. Therefore, it is the question of real values

and values that should be true in society. Social interaction between people is often the result of

misleading assumptions.

The pursuit of people includes the typical features of capitalism such as selfishness,

individualistic approach, profit-seeking, and the tendency to exchange, etc. It is a consequence of

people's selfish attitude not to look at any aspect that has advantages which does not belong to

them. Selfishness is caused by human needs. Food and shelter is the biological need of man.

Their desire to make a profit is based on fulfilling their needs. But you also have to pay attention

to the needs of others. People live in a society where they have to work together, and this

collaboration should not be based on pure selfishness. For this reason, egoism and profit

orientation in all areas are the reasons for the reification and deviation from the norms of human

nature. Geuss in his essay on Philosophical anthropology and social criticism in reification

believes that Lukacs views capitalism as a proponent of false concepts and reifications that

reveal ideological delusions in society. Reification is thus a medium to fully understand the

components of social reality that are based solely on externalities.

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Pitkin in his article, Rethinking Reification: Theory and Society believes that reification

means that abstract ideas are treated as something physical, concrete, substantial, and real.

According to the Bottomore Dictionary of Marxist Thought defines reification in these words:

the act (or result of action) of the transformation of human qualities, relationships and actions

into properties, relationships and actions of things produced by human beings that are

independent (and were originally considered independent) ruled by man and his life. It also

involves transforming people into dingy creatures that do not behave humanly, but according to

the laws of the world of things. Reification is a “special case of alienation, its most radical and

widespread form characteristic of modern capitalist society” (Bottomore 463).

Reification reduces people’s values and increases the value of things. It's about the

humiliation of the people. Things get so much power that they control human life. Things are

lifeless and do not have the power to raise or lower their own values. Of course, people increase

or decrease the values. Another fact is that a person does not have enough power to improve or

reduce the value of things in a society thus the unification of thoughts is included in order to

improve the values of things and to lower the values of man. It is the collective belief system that

prevails in society through imitation of each other. It is the ideology of capitalist society.

People need things to survive, and things do not need people, according to Lukacs as

things have become regulators of man. A person uses things for his facilities. People want to

have as many facilities as possible in their lives. To get facilities, they want to own things. They

want to get all sorts of things in abundance. To get something, they want to earn wealth. Almost

everyone wants to own a lot of money and possessions. In search of wealth almost everyone

becomes selfish, greedy and money seeker. The deterioration occurs due to the combination of

desire and human needs. As a result, things become more important because everyone seems to
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possess them almost emotionally. It is the phase of reification in which things govern people

because people are their followers and passionate followers. It is also a commodity fetishism

mentioned by Marx. In this way, where a manipulator of human life is, according to Lukacs it

sinks deeply into human consciousness. Reification is a research tool to investigate all these facts

of capitalist society.

Lukacs locates the fundamental element of reification in the Marx theory of commodity

fetishism. In commodity fetishism, it is believed that social relationships between people are “the

fantastic form of a relationship between things” (86). Feenberg in his review on Lukacs’s Theory

of Reification and Contemporary Social Movements explains that in the reified world, the

relationship of people to society is the same as the relationship to natural objects. For Feenberg

the fragmentation is reification. People are apart. They are not considered members of a

particular family, group or society. On the contrary, they are individuals. Like people, all the

institutions in society are separate from each other and have their own laws (493). The alienation

theory of Marx also represents this concept of separation between individuals.

Discussion

In the prologue of the novel Gopal is introduced as a successful man in capitalist Indian

society. As the director of Ganga Tech University, he earns a lot of wealth and lives a wonderful

life. With the individualistic and competitive skills he seems to be a typical figure of capitalism.

The book's prologue gives the impression that it is a story about a man who attains a higher

status in society. Gopal maintains inaccurate beliefs and follows the apparent nature of

capitalism. Ganga Tech College is his property and education is for him a commodity from

which he earns. For him, the ultimate goal is to enjoy whiskey and to accumulate wealth. He
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proudly talks about his income and suggests Chetan to follow his life. He says “live life. Start

having fine whisky. You will develop a taste!” (3). He responds to the warning given by Chetan

about spoiling himself in drinking wine, as “Why dangerous! Who is going to fucking cry for

me? If I live, I want to enjoy. If I die, who cares?” (5).

Gopal’s idea of enjoying life is a reformed concept of a pessimist who drinks to get rid of

his desperation. The activity he calls the source of joy is disappointing and not enough to enjoy

the luxury of things alone. He lives lonely and misses something despite all the facilities. To

meet this shortcoming, he drinks heavily. “Gopal’s hand trembled as he continued to pour his

drink. I wondered if I should stop him from drinking more” (5). Gopal drinks to forget the grief

of his love because he has lost Aarti forever. His strong drinking makes Chetan realize that there

is a terrible fact in his past. In a state of extreme wealth, there is a vacuum in his life. He is alone

in a well-equipped large bungalow. He is a single boy without a friend, a wife and a sincere

family members, as he says, “successful people do not have friends” (11). His remark about the

successful people implies the individualistic and selfish ideology of capitalism. In capitalist

society, people usually fulfill their own selfish motives and ignore the needs of others. They have

no cordial relations. Their relationships are based on the exchange of commodities. It is the

objectification of a human relationship. This assumption is hardly true, since it is almost

impossible to see every human being as a follower of his own egoism. The Companion of Gopal,

Chetan, is an important example of a person with an altruistic spirit. Chetan does not leave him

in his critical state of drunkenness. He brings Gopal to the hospital and spends the night with

him. It is the act of sympathy and friendliness without any selfish or opportunistic intent behind

it. It's the proof that not everyone can be selfish. It implies that a person in all matters is not

sufficient for himself and that he needs the cooperation of others. All the needs of a person
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cannot be achieved by money and property alone. Reification believes that money and property

can meet all needs. A person needs compassion and friendship beyond the accumulation of

wealth. The ironic situation is that Gopal makes a comment against the friendship while his

friend helps him and takes him to the hospital. Gopal’s idea of “the successful people” (71)

represents his inner thoughts, which are fully developed in the capitalist environment.

Selfishness of humans cannot be an ordinary truth of human nature. Reification consists of

applying this idea to all humanity and generalizing all people as followers of the same goal,

while the fact is that selfishness can be the relational truth of a capitalist culture and that Gopal’s

assumption about the successful people can be true with respect to his own society. His

misunderstanding is also related to the idea of success. In his opinion, a rich person is successful,

while the reality is that his own money, with which he buys whiskey, damages his health and he

is restored with the help of a man of altruistic spirit. So, if you look at a rich person, a successful

person is a misleading faith in every way, leading to reunification.

Gopal drinks to eliminate the suffering of harsh reality. His current situation is the result

of the pursuit of the ways of capitalism. The paths of capitalism are guided by the ideological

torch of individualism, selfishness, self-interest, competition and exploitation, and so on. In the

realm of capitalism, he receives almost all the facilities of life, but he lacks the inward spiritual

satisfaction he wants. The facilities of life are provided by capitalism, but human life is not

limited to these institutions. His inner dissatisfaction is a symbolic announcement that seeks to

earn throughout his life by using all fair and unfair means. This is not a real practice of human

nature. Making a living is a human need, but it cannot be the only purpose of life. In fact, it is a

misleading concept that leads to reunification.

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Aarti begins to love him when he is poor and leaves him because he gets involved in

sexual relationship with the two prostitutes which is not tolerable by her. She cannot forgive the

moral error in his personality, but she condemns him in her own way. Aarti did not understand

the nature of the relationship between Gopal and the prostitutes. He is sexually not a loose

character. He does this only for fashion and the girls express their astonishment that he does not

handle them well. In fact, he follows the ways of the rich without fulfilling his sexual desire, and

he wants to include himself in the higher Indian social class. His thoughts are about entering into

a higher social stratification. This facet of his personality is misjudged by Aarti and she abandons

him. It is the result of following the phenomenon without understanding the underlying reality.

The moral error is the result of being rich because he believes that all rich people do that. In his

poverty he gains his beloved and in a state of extreme wealth he loses her forever. His wealth

causes his emotional disorder and almost destroys his life. It suggests that over-reliance on

property and assets is not a very correct assumption and that owning a very large property does

not always give the owner great pleasure. Occasionally it causes a stir in one’s life. It is the

rejection of an established idea in capitalist societies that wealth and property are the source of

comfort, pleasure and success. If Gopal had not been rich, he could not have bought the company

of prostitutes to lose his lover. His wealth brings disappointment and gives him the freedom to

engage with prostitutes.

Parents play their own role in the mental and spiritual growth of their children. The

personality of Gopal is heavily influenced by his father's poverty. His very first act of stealing

Aarti’s cake is due to his poor background because his father cannot afford the lunch box for his

son. The father maintains his own false beliefs and assumptions. In fact, these beliefs are created

in people's minds by seeing the actions and thoughts of each other. The father is unwilling to sell
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a piece of his land to meet his needs. He does not want to receive medical treatment by selling

his land, while saying, “I am a farmer’s son. I am not giving up my land. Not until I die” (15).

Instead, he ignores his own illness and lies in bed waiting for death. The fortune that Gopal had

used with Shukla ji to accumulate wealth by unfair means could be used honestly before, but his

father’s false confidence in the country was a resistance on his way.His son’s failure to complete

the engineering test for the second time is unacceptable to him and he dies by leaving his son

under the burden of loans. His tragedy stems from the mistaken acceptance of engineering as a

sign of respect and ignoring various other respectable sources of earning with honesty. The

father’s desire to gain popularity, dignity and respect for his son’s work is also a false belief. The

wrong beliefs are considered by Lukacs as reification. Everyone does not have to respect others

because of their higher rank. Someone who serves others wins his respect.

Poverty contributes to reification because both Gopal and his father develop their reified

ideas in the shadow of poverty. A poor person is more inclined to engage in activities that are

against his will and are depersonalized as things by acting against his own decision. By

comparison, Aarti wants to work with her rich background to fulfill her wish. She plans to

become an air hostess to see the world. “They fly everywhere. I want to see different places…”

(16). Also, the needs of the rich are simply already fulfilled, and they are in search of their

desires, while the poor usually struggle to satisfy their needs. The acceptance of work against

one’s own wishes and without the participation of one's own choice is an aspect of

depersonalization and dehumanization. The dehumanization is so terrible that sometimes people

whose freedom of action is denied commit suicide in extreme desperation. The dehumanized

people are often not satisfied with their lifestyle because they do not act freely and fulfill the

wishes of others. They are usually marginalized. Gopal’s friend Prateek expresses his
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dissatisfaction in these words, “We don’t have a home. We are like people stuck in outer space.

No home, no school, no college, no job…” (79).

The facilities in which Gopal chooses to coach did not seem to be educational

institutions. They are like business markets and the students are treated as customers. These

institutions are always busy collecting the profits from the students. They do not take into

account the compulsion or poverty of a student. No one is willing to regret the bad conditions of

Gopal. In fact, Gopal is used by them as a thing that maximizes profit.

MLA Shukla ji believes tremendously in the power of money. In his opinion, anyone can

be bought with money. The activity of sailing and buying is not suitable for people. It is a thing-

like treatment of humans, but Raghav is not bought by Shukla. Gopal says about him, "He can’t

be bought, sir, but Shukla thinks, everyone has a price” (239). It is a co-modification of man

because he mistakenly believes that every person has his own price as a commodity. It is also the

misunderstanding of Shukla and the deception of the people.

The Newspaper Revolution 2020 is actually a predictable revolution against reification.

People are victims of false consciousness and blindness to reality. The real causes of upheaval

and corruption are hidden from them. Journalism reveals the truth and makes society more

aware. But some people like Gopal and the followers of Shukla willingly accept blindness, while

Gopal turns off the TV when Raghav gives an interview. “I turned off the T.V. I couldn’t take

his bullshit anymore. Neither could Shukla’s men” (244). In a state of blindness and selfishness,

people support the MLA Shukla Ji and destroy Raghav's office. It is their blindness that they

cannot understand their savior Raghav. Raghav is the savior of society as a whole and he tries to

sanitize them against corruption. Corruption is a result of greed and selfishness. People ignore
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the corruption of Shukla because they assume that everyone is selfish and has the right to earn

money. It is their misconception.

Some false values are considered by Gopal to be real. He wants to be a rich person

without giving honest or unfair means. He gives envelopes as bribes, but his mental satisfaction

lies with Aarti, whom he loses in pursuit of bodily pleasure. His success is the satisfaction of his

personality. On the contrary, Raghav limits the acquisition of property and wealth only to his

needs. He honestly deserves to meet his survival needs. His income is not the ultimate end of his

life because he has a virtuous purpose. Therefore his values are real while Gopal is wrong. In the

end, Gopal admits, “Your career is different from others. You can’t measure it in money. In

terms of helping people you are doing quite well…” (287). He says about himself with

disappointment, “I looked around my big house as empty as my soul” (290). Gopal recognizes

that wealth accumulation is a false value; it is a kind of reification. “I will try to fix the system. I

am sick of giving envelops to people… everyone must sacrifice for it, Gopal said” (295).

Conclusion

The applicability of the theory of reification to the narrative reveals the fact that honor is

in rendering some services to others, and only selfishness cannot be the sole purpose of human

life. Gopal cannot win the respect of the people around him. He cannot marry his lover and is

self-contained, but Raghav is visited by ordinary people who respect him. The character of Gopal

shows us that the people who accumulate wealth alone are unsuccessful. They are the victims of

false consciousness. Wealth makes human life easier, but sometimes it causes problems. The

story of Gopal and his father shows us that misconceptions often cause tragic events in human

life. The relationship between Gopal and his father confirms that the laws of capitalism are
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stronger than the parent’s love for their children, as the parent’s love is driven by the

circumstances of capitalism.

The poor characters in the novels are primarily victims of dehumanization and

depersonalization. The story shows a conflict between individualism and altruism. Individualistic

achievements are seen as the struggles of the spirits, while altruism is offered as a social need

and source of spiritual pleasure. Corruption is the result of reification and Raghav’s paper is an

attempt to get rid of salvation. Reification is an ignorance against which Raghav spreads

awareness. The novel offers a contrast between the real and the wrong values. It gives the

impression that reification is almost a social problem that relates to several capitalist societies.

Many people are usually consciously or unconsciously influenced by it and the different aspects

of it can also be observed in real life.

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References

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